


Hellmouth Stupid

by maryperk



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: BtVS S6, Character Death, F/M, Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-17
Updated: 2012-11-17
Packaged: 2017-11-18 21:37:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/565557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maryperk/pseuds/maryperk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Be careful what you say on the Hellmouth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hellmouth Stupid

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by Tasha

Hellmouth Stupid

 

 

 

“I dare you,” Janice said.  “I bet you can’t do it, Dawn.”

 

 

 

Dawn rolled her eyes.  “You know, that’s an old wives tale.  I mean really.  Bloody Mary, the Candyman, and the Boogeyman?   Nothing is gonna appear if I say any of those names into a mirror three times.”

 

 

 

“Not the mirror, you chicken,” Janice chortled.  She pointed across the room.  “Say it under the bed.”

 

 

 

“This is ridiculous, Janice.  Where the heck did you hear about this insanity?”

 

 

 

“Around.”  Janice grinned.  “If you’re too chicken … “   She tucked her hands into her armpits, flapped her elbows, and made exaggerated chicken clucks.

 

 

 

“Whatever.”  Dawn scooted across the floor, and she pulled up the comforter.  “Boogeyman.  Boogeyman.  Boogeyman.”

 

 

 

If they had been in any other town on Earth, it wouldn’t have mattered what was said or where it was spoken.  However, normal rules never applied when you lived over the most powerful Hellmouth on the planet.

 

 

 

“Dawn, your sister’s boyfriend is here to walk you home,” Mrs. Penshaw called up the stairs.

 

 

 

“I gotta go, Janice.   Can’t keep Spike waiting.”  Dawn leapt to her feet.  She grabbed her backpack on her way out the door.  Over her shoulder, she said, “See ya in school tomorrow.”

 

 

 

“Yeah, see ya.”  Janice shook her head.  “She is so gullible.”

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

 

 

Janice pulled back the bedspread, and she crawled in.  Once she was settled, she turned out the lamp on the bedside table.  She closed her eyes as she prepared to go to sleep.

 

 

 

_Thump.  Thump.  Thump,_

 

 

 

Janice’s bed rocked back and forth.  She let out a disgruntled grunt.  “That better not be you, Dawn.  You better not be trying to scare me because I made you say that stupid name three times under the bed.”

 

 

 

The bone-chilling chuckle that was the answer to her statement scared Janice like nothing before.  Dawn would be giggling by now, not trying to scare her more.    She looked down at the end of her bed just in time to see a long, pale arm grab the bedspread near her feet.  Janice let out a squeak, and she pulled her covers up over her head.

 

 

 

Everyone knew if you stayed under your blankets you were safe.

 

 

 

Janice heard cold-filled whisper beneath the bed.  At the same time,  a shadow she was too busy hiding to see skittered across the floor in the direction of her closet.  “Not real.  Not real.  Not real,” she whispered.  She felt long fingers burrow beneath her blanket, and as a cold hand closed around her ankle, Janice let out a terrified scream.

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

 

 

Dawn snuck down the stairs.  She wanted to spy on Spike and Buffy.  It had only been a few days since Buffy had told the Scoobies that she planned on dating Spike because he made her feel something besides soul-killing depression.  Their reactions had varied from acceptance to ‘what the hell are you thinking, Buffy’.

 

 

 

“Is Giles still ignoring you?” Spike asked.

 

 

 

Dawn was more than a little mad at Giles at the moment.  He’d been the one to ask Buffy what she was thinking dating another vampire.

 

 

 

“Yes.”  Buffy’s voice was filled with sadness.  “He had Tara tell me that he’s flying back to England.  For good.”

 

 

 

Spike didn’t say anything, but Dawn knew what he’s thinking.  After spending the summer together while Buffy was dead, Dawn had a very good understanding about how the vampire thought.  She was sure Spike was going through a list of derogatory names in his head that he called people who curried his displeasure.

 

 

 

A noise in Dawn’s bedroom caught the teenager’s attention.  She looked over her shoulder at the door, and she frowned when a shadow darted across the crack at the bottom of the door.  Who the heck would be in her room?

 

 

 

Dawn snuck back towards the bedroom on tiptoes.  There was no point alerting either the pair downstairs or whoever was hovering behind the door of her intentions.  She pushed the door open with great care.  Dawn was just in time to see a pale, hairless body scuttle under her bed.

 

 

 

Dawn backed away from the room until she was at the top of the stairs.  “Spike,” she whispered.  She knew the vampire would be able to hear her.  “There’s something under my bed.”  Then, without fully turning her back on the bedroom door, she started down the stairs.

 

 

 

Spike and Buffy brushed past Dawn on their way to her bedroom.  They both had weapons clutched in their hands.  Spike paused for a moment.  “What did you see, Nibblet?” he asked in a soft voice.

 

 

 

Dawn shook her head.  “It was pale and hairless.  It crawled under the bed.”

 

 

 

“Whatever it was, it’s gone now.”  Buffy voice floated out of the bedroom.  “Are you sure it wasn’t a shadow or something?”

 

 

 

“Maybe it was the boogeyman,” Spike teased.

 

 

 

“Oh, my God.”  Dawn covered her mouth.

 

 

 

“What?” Spike and Buffy asked at the same time.  Buffy’s head popped out of the bedroom before she stepped into the hall.  She closed the door behind her.

 

 

 

Dawn shook her head.  “I think I may have done something stupid,” she said from behind her hands.

 

 

 

“How stupid?”

 

 

 

“Hellmouth stupid,” Dawn uttered in a sheepish voice.  “I took a dare from Janice.”

 

 

 

“Explain everything.”

 

 

 

“Janice dared me to say boogeyman under the bed three times like you’d say Bloody Mary into a mirror.”  Dawn sighed.  “I laughed because I thought it was stupid, but she called me a chicken.  So, I did it.”

 

 

 

“Yeah, that was just a bit Hellmouth stupid, Bit,” Spike commented.

 

 

 

“Okay, downstairs.  We need to figure out what to do.”  Buffy kept her body between Dawn and the bedroom door.

 

 

 

Spike chuckled.  “Rally the troops.”

 

 

 

“The troops are just Willow, Tara, and Anya these days,” Dawn snorted.  “I think we need to recruit some new ones.”

 

 

 

“It’ll have to be enough for now.”  Buffy herded her sister and Spike down the stairs.  “Find some excuse to call Janice’s.  Make sure she’s okay.”

 

 

 

Dawn nodded.  “Okay.  I’ll just tell her mother I forgot one of my books there.  Janice has my copy of ‘Of Mice and Men’ anyway.”  At the bottom of the stairs, she broke away to make the phone call while Spike stood guard.

 

 

 

Soon, the troops had gathered in Buffy’s living room.  Mainly it was Tara and Willow who had come in five minutes later from their movie date.   Spike had explained the situation to the two witches, and they were researching the best they could without access to Giles’ books.

 

 

 

Buffy was trying, with little luck, to soothe a crying Dawn.  After Dawn had called, Mrs. Penshaw had gone to her daughter’s room to check for Dawn’s book.   When she went to wake her daughter, she found Janice dead under the covers, a look of complete terror on her face.

 

 

 

The front door burst open.  “Finally,” Anya announced her presence.  “I had to give Xander orgasms until he fell asleep.  I couldn’t sneak out any other way.  This didn’t happen when I was a vengeance demon.”

 

 

 

Everyone stared at Anya for a few second and blinked their eyes in surprise.

 

 

 

“So, what’s the emergency?”  Anya pushed her long bangs behind her ears.

 

 

 

“The boogeyman.  Facts, myths, or truly fascinating, but gory tales of evisceration?” Willow asked.

 

 

 

“What have you found out so far?”

 

 

 

Willow shook her head.  “Nada.”

 

 

 

“A boogeyman is a version of a fear demon,” Anya stated.

 

 

 

Buffy wrinkled her nose.  “Like Gachnar back at that haunted frat house?”  She gestured for Tara to take over comforting Dawn.

 

 

 

Tara slipped onto the couch on the other side of Dawn, and she pulled the teenager’s head onto her shoulder.   “Shhh,” she spoke quietly hoping it wouldn’t upset Dawn any further.  “Everything is going to be okay.  I promise.”

 

 

 

“I thought that was a poltergeist,” Spike said with a look of confusion on his face.  “Repressed sexual tension or some rot.”

 

 

 

“Before that.  It was right after you lost the ring,” Buffy replied.  “Willow, Oz, Xander, and I got trapped in this frat house living our worst fear.  Turned out it was this little demon called Gachnar.”  She shrugged.  “I stepped on him.”

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

 

 

Blootie slipped into the Penshaw closet with a terrified look on his face.  “Sssssslayer,” he hissed to his buddy, Boom.

 

 

 

Boom arched an eyebrow.   “Ssssssslayer?” he hissed in return.

 

 

 

“Caller isss Sssssslayer’s sssssissster,” Blootie replied.  “There wassss a blood sssssucker there too.”

 

 

 

“We could take them all,” Boom said.  “Sssssslayer, ssssssister and ssssssucker.”

 

 

 

“We’d be famousssss,” Blootie hissed again.

 

 

 

“Let’sssss go.”

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

 

 

“So, how do you get rid of the boogeyman?” Willow asked.  “Isn’t it a little too big to be stepped on?”

 

 

 

Anya scratched her nose.  “How did you get a boogeyman here in the house?  Most of the time they’re pretty incorporeal.”

 

 

 

“Janice dared Dawn to say the name under the bed three times,” Buffy said with a sigh.  She glanced at her sister.  “When we called the Penshaws, Janice was dead.”

 

 

 

“Some things should never be done this close to a Hellmouth,” Spike muttered.  He didn’t really blame Dawn.  He just hoped she had learned her lesson.

 

 

 

“Oh my.”  Anya looked at Dawn with sympathy.  She went over to awkwardly pat the teenager’s shoulder.  She hated when people died because she had no idea how to react.  “I’m so sorry, Dawn.”

 

 

 

“So, we have to take the boogeyman’s ‘power’ away,” Buffy stated.

 

 

 

“So, another banishing spell?” Willow questioned.  “We had Giles to help us last time.”

 

 

 

“Yeah, but you hadn’t raised anybody from the dead last time either,” Buffy said.

 

 

 

“True.”  Willow chewed her lip for a moment.  Then, she got to her feet, and she headed towards the bedroom she and Tara shared upstairs. “Okay, I can do this.  Just give me a minute or two.”

 

 

 

“Why don’t we go make some hot chocolate?” Tara asked Dawn in a soft voice.

 

 

 

“Okay.”  Dawn’s answer was watery and tear-filled.  She let Tara help her stand up and lead her towards the kitchen.

 

 

 

“Go with them, demon girl.”  Spike tilted his head towards the departing duo.  “Keep a close eye on things for us.”

 

 

 

“No problem.”

 

 

 

Buffy crossed the room to the weapons chest where she’d dropped her stake earlier when she went to comfort Dawn.   “I think this situation calls for something bigger than a stake.”  She opened the chest, and she pulled out a sword.

 

 

 

“Yeah, better safe than sorry.”  Spike joined Buffy.  He also took up a sword to battle their foe.

 

 

 

“I’m ready,” Willow called down from upstairs.

 

 

 

Spike and Buffy joined Willow outside Dawn’s bedroom door.  The three of them were ready to do combat.

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

 

 

Blootie crawled out from beneath the bed of the Slayer’s sister.  He let out a shriek when he saw the occupants of the room.  Then, he pulled up the bedcover and scrambled back into the safety of darkness.

 

 

 

“What isssss wrong?” Boom asked.

 

 

 

“Sssssslayer and ssssssucker have witch doing sssssspell.”  Blootie trembled in fear.  Last time he’d been caught in a spell, he’d spent several decades in a heavenly dimension surrounded by happiness and joy.  He still had nightmares about it.

 

 

 

“It’ssssss jusssssst a witch.   Even more famoussssss.”

 

 

 

“Sssssswords too.  Ssssssalted circle.  Bad newssssss for Blootie and Boom.”  Blootie trembled again at the thought of the Great High Poombla being angry at them for not bringing back any new pets to play with.

 

 

 

“Bad newssssss,” Blootie agreed.

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

 

 

Willow looked up from her spell book.  “It’s done.   There’s a barrier around all the beds in the house.  Nothing supernatural can escape from beneath them.”

 

 

 

“Oh, thank God,” Buffy said in breathless relief.  “What about other people’s houses?”

 

 

 

“Well, I suppose I could try to banish everything under Dawn’s bed.”  Willow started flipping through her spell book.  “Let’s just hope she doesn’t have anything important under there.”

 

 

 

“You know, Slayer, this a lot more anticlimactic and less violent than usual,” Spike commented.

 

 

 

Buffy wrinkled her nose.  “Yeah, I noticed.  How about we go on patrol after this?  I’m sure we can find some fledglings to decimate.”

 

 

 

“It’s a date.”

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

 

 

“Witch issssss doing another sssssspell,” Blootie whimpered.  “Bad, bad banisssssshing sssssspell.”

 

 

 

“I can hear that,” Boom replied.  “Maybe we’ll get lucky thissssss time.”

 

 

 

“No, Blootie no have good luck.  All bad luck for Blootie.”  Blootie shook his head.  He closed his eyes in terrified anticipation.  He wondered how long it would take him to escape this time.

 

 

 

The next thing Blootie and Boom knew they were surrounded by sunshine, chirping birds, and happiness.

 

 

 

“Thissssss truly issssss Hell,” Boom moaned.

 

 

 

“I agree.”

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

 

 

So, a lesson was learned.  Well, for a short time anyway.   It only lasted until the next time Dawn did something that Spike deemed ‘Hellmouth stupid’, but that’s a different story.


End file.
